I am amazed by Max. He is a maze fanatic! He literally can sit down at a maze and start at the top and just go clear through the maze from the start to the finish without really messing up or going the wrong way. I asked him how he does it so fast? He just said" mom, I can just see where to go." Pretty amazing for a 4 year old.
This is a maze that he just went right through. I thought this might be kind of a hard maze. Boy was I wrong!

Focus :)

Today you get to take a look at our every day life.

Max and I had a lot of fun coloring for quite awhile this morning. Yesterday we cleaned together all morning so it was nice today to just sit around and color. Max is a lot of fun for me to be with. He always has a smile on his face.

So the skateboard is Jake's new favorite thing to crawl to (besides the stairs). He crawls all the way up on the top of it. It is so cute.

Isaac and Max think that it is funny once Jake gets on the skateboard to push him around. And actually it kind of is funny until Jake starts screaming a real live "stop it now" scream. They are all very fun to have around. They keep me smiling!

Girls Trip to Las Vegas

A TRIP TO REMEMBER!

We went to Las Vegas this year for our girls trip and we had a really great time! We arrived on Thursday late morning and we even arrived at the airport in the same hour so we didn't have to come back and forth. Such great planning! We went out for lunch and shopped the afternoon away.
That night we went to this hilarious restaurant for dinner. They have a sign at the front of the store that the servers do not have to necessairly use their manners or anything. We were waiting for a table and some people were just sitting at one of the tables chatting and the waitress came over to them and said "Hey can't you see people are waiting, get out of here." Needless to say out they went. We sat down and our waitress did not come for a few minutes and so the host came over and threw down some place mats that were paper and our silverware and said , "Here pass this crap out." Then Mom, Anna and I ordered water to drink and Hailey and Heather got a soda. They didn't want to bring us each out our own cup so they brought out our drinks in ice buckets, one had water and the other soda she said, "that should be enough so don't ask for refills." We did just fine with laughing about the rudeness but there were others in the restaurant that didn't do very well. We all can agree that a kind waitress is much easier to deal with but it was kind of funny for a change.


Friday night we went to the show "The Price Is Right" and it was so much fun. We somehow got seats right in the front in the soft comfy chairs with a table. Just plain luck! We screamed so much we could hardly talk. After the show we went to Margaritaville for dinner. It is a very fun restaurant and we all got a fancy drink and shared a couple of meals there. That night there was a great band playing and we just had to laugh because there was this lady that was probably around 65 years old and I am not positive that she could walk on Saturday morning. She was throwing herself all around the dance floor. Very entertaining! Margaritaville is a very fun resturant if you like it loud.

On Friday morning we went to the Spa at the South Pointe resort. I would have to say that for myself this was the highlight of the trip. None of us have ever been to a fancy spa and had a treatment packaged done. It was well worth the money. We got there at 8:00 in the morning and checked in and they gave us our robes and shoes and everything. Anna, Hailey and Heather went first while mom and I sat in the hot tubs and took showers. In the shower room they have little cards outside to tell you what scent of shampoo, conditioner, body cleanser and shaving cream is inside of the shower room you are in. They already have you a towel and everything in the shower rooms so you don't have to worry. There was also cascading showers and all sorts of fun things. These pictures were taken in the relaxation room where you could just hang out. Mom and I went after the other girls. We did not know what to expect but it turned out great. We started with a full body exfoliation. They put you on this bed and cover you up as needed and there is this shower that has a ton of heads and it comes right over you laying down to rinse you off. It was fabulous! They you had to another room where they put oil on you and wrap you up in hot rocks and then you got a cold rock facial and hand and feet massages and a head massage with hot oil that had a divine smell. They they unwrapped you and put some great smelling body butter on and off you went. It was a really great 90 minutes!!! I think with a fair amount of money and time that the spa would definately be somewhere I would frequent a lot! We ended up staying at the spa for like 5 or 6 hours. It was a great way to start the day!

All of our toes at the spa!

Mom relaxing after her treatment.

Hailey after her treatment.

Heather after her treatment.

Anna after her treatment.

Lacie after her treatment. We all had hot oil in our hair but we were feeling great!

Just some fun pictures!
( Heather turn your camera around!)

On Saturday we slept in and did not leave the condo until like noon. We went to a matinee at the Town Square. We saw the movie Bride Wars. It was a good movie everyone agreed! Then we did some shopping at the Town Square and met up with Lyndsay there. After that we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. That is where we are in these pictures.

Following dinner we went to New York, New York to the dueling piano bar. If you haven't been there it is a lot of fun. I cannot believe how good they play the piano. After that we went to the South Pointe resort and played bowling for hours. We finally ended up going home at like 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. Which is all well and good until the alarm goes off at 4:30 to start getting ready to go to the airport. Anna and mom's flight left at 6:30. And we all rode to the airport to take them. Hailey slept at the airport until her flight at 8:00 and then Heather and I went back to the condo for some more shut eye and then we flew out at noon.

We had a really great time on this girls trip. Many memories never to be forgotten right ladies!?

Max and his violin!!

So as you will all remember all Max wanted for Christmas from santa was a violin. He would not change his mind for anything, because we tried! Santa's elves spent a lot of time shopping and trying to find a violin. But a real violin is quite expensive and who knew if he was just testing santa or if he really wanted it. Well Christmas came and he got a skateboard and ramp. Happy, but did not forget about the violin. Lucky for him Grandpa Nolan received a violin as a Christmas present. It was just tiny and he didn't have any use for it. Katie and Jeremy were here before Christmas and he told them how he wanted a violin. And I told them how santa looked and looked for one and was coming up with nothing. So as you can imagine when Katie saw this violin that Nolan got she said it was the perfect thing that Max wanted! So Grandpa Nolan brought Max the little violin and made his day to say the least! He carried it around all day and brought it in the car and everything. It is a great little violin it will either play by itself or it will let you play the strings by yourself! It is exactly what santa would have brought if only he would of thought of going to Grandma Norma's basement! Lucky for Max, Santa Nolan brought it to him. Better late than never! It sits safely on top of the piano until Max wants to play it. It is so much fun to watch him hold it up under his chin and play.

Winter!

This is our view of winter for the last few days. It has been so foggy and freezing! Although even for someone who is not exactly a winter lover, I even have to admit that it is very pretty outside! The trees are so pretty all frozen with the fog. We were headed out to church yesterday and we looked at the trees and they boys were telling me to get my camera because it was so pretty. So of course I am not turning down a camera opportunity and yet we still made it to church in plenty of time.

Isaac

This is the youngest picture of Isaac that I have scanned right now. I think he was probably around 4 years old in this picture but it is one of my favorites. I think I am going to have to buy a scanner to scan in all of his baby pictures and stuff. We weren't high tech with a digital camera until Max was a couple years old or something. Isaac was such a cute little guy and he is such a great big brother!

We went to parent teacher conference last night and talked with his 1st grade teacher and she just loves Isaac. He is doing awesome at school above average is some things and just a good strong student. She says he has a lot of friends and is very kind and respectful to everyone. She is wishing she could keep him again next year. The funniest thing is right when we were walking in to talk to her she said "I just had a little girl in here who only wanted to talk about Isaac and nothing else. Everytime I asked her a question about school she said she was just glad Isaac was in her class she really like him" Of course it made Isaac so embarassed and he was blushing a little. I guess you are never to young to wooo the girls! He is such a good boy and we love him so much.

Little Max

Here is a picture I found of Max when he was little. He still has the same curly hair only more of it now! He was just a couple of years old I am guessing, but isn't he cute!!! Max is such a great kid - we just adore him. He is hilarious and keeps us all laughing about something.

Baby Jake

So I actually had these pictures taken of Jake a little while ago and I just got them scanned so that I could use them. Isn't he so stinkin' cute? The photographer actually put him in the photo contest because these pictures turned out so good. While we were there that day getting these taken there were two other kids there as well. They were both just screaming and wouldn't get there pictures taken at all. And then this little baby doll Jake just took these pictures 1,2,3,4 and we were done. He was such a good boy. I had my pictures taken, picked and printed before the other two kids were even cooperating. I was the lucky mom that day :) !!!

We are going to be making our blog "private" I like to think that everyone who looks at it is people I know but just in case we are changing it. If you would like to continue to see our blog and follow our family please leave me a comment with your email address or email me and this will not effect you. You will still be able to enjoy our blog the way we do :) Thanks for your help and have a great day!

Jake is crawling!!!

So my baby little Jake crawled away yesterday. I have happy feelings and sad feelings. He has to be too little still to crawl but he does turn 8 months old this week. So I guess it really is time to crawl. He will crawl to just about anything but he loves to crawl to his little puppy. He is so funny to watch because he gets so excited about being able to actually get somewhere. Max was looking at a book today and Jake crawled over and was messing with it and Max said "mom, why he is coming over here to bug my book" and I just said he will always want to be by you now that he can get there. And remember what you have will always be what he wants to have to. So I guess everyone in the family has mixed emotions. But it is really so cute to watch him go!!

I guess today was the day that he wanted to grow up because at the grocery store he sat in the front of the cart with no car seat. Just tiny little legs hanging out of the cart. So cute! And for dinner he sat in his highchair at the table with the family. He had some potatoes with us and he was one happy kid.

It is hard to believe that he is 8 months old now and growing so much. We just love our little Jake!

Justin - duck hunting in Blackfoot

After much deliberation Justin decided buy a hunting license in Idaho for this year. So off he went to Blackfoot to duck hunt with Jarod this past weekend. He had a lot of fun hunting in his old hunting places where he knows exactly what the ducks are going to do. I was really glad that he got to see everyone and have a good time.

Last night I was up watching the weather on the news and this was the bad news they had to report. Usually where we live we get 14" of snow in the entire month of January. Lucky for us (ha ha ha) we have so far up thru yesterday have received 21" of snow. So that is 21" in like 6 days. I knew it was snowing hard but I didn't know it was that bad. Justin and I have been shoveling at night after the kids go to bed so that his little car can get out in the mornings. Ususally he has to shovel again before he can leave. I am sure it snowed this much last year but I am not sure that it all came in 7 days! The kids are loving it and right at this moment they are outside with their friends having a snowball fight.

New Year's in West Yellowstone, MT

We went out sledding while we were there and it was seriously so cold that it almost instantly froze your face. It even hurt to smile! But that didn't stop the kids from having a great time. I guess you can always warm up later!

This is how Jake started the sledding trip. He didn't get to spend anytime outside this trip it was just too cold for the little guy!

But he woke up and played in the car. The boys went out on a snowmachine ride and met us at the sledding hill. We found this great sledding hill last year and I think it will forever be the place to go sledding in West.

Max and Grandpa Kirk

Isaac heading down the hill.

Isaac

Max - he is always good for a smile toward the camera!

Isaac and Grandpa Kirk

We had so, so much fun in West Yellowstone again this year! It is so fun to go and spend time with family and have so much fun together! We love the West Yellowstone trip!